Pretty poinsettias: UNH Students care for, sell thousands of flowers

DURHAM — Pam and Joe Stieglitz peruse the over 100 varieties of poinsettias at the University of New Hampshire every year.

This year, they were blowing the red, white, pink, and “glittered” poinsettias looking for four to take home.

The Seventh Annual Poinsettia Trials Open House kicked off Thursday opening the doors of the UNH Macfarlane Greenhouses and Thompson School Horticultural Facility for visitors looking to purchase or just appreciate the thousands of signature winter plants.

“We come every year to this and the Evergreen Fair,” Pam said. “It's a good Thursday to start the holidays.”

Having visited from their home in Lee over the years, the Stieglitz's like to find something a little different when they attend.

“We change it up every year,” Joe said, though Pam admitted they had some favorite varieties.

The selection is cared for all semester long by students in the ornamental course, a two-year associate degree program at the Thompson School of Applied Science.

The students take the cuts of plants delivered during the summer months and care for them throughout their course, transplanting them into pots and caring for them as they grow.

“We do little things to them here and there,” Kevin Hardman, said.

Hardman and classmate Melissa Dnaou, were meticulously folding the edges of the shiny green, red and gold layers of foil that would be wrapped around each potted plant.

In another room, a handful of breeders bring their hundreds of trial plants and place them in the show for judging by the public, which is how the show originated, instructor Chris Robarge, said.

Bob Lord, a UNH alumnus, and his wife, Karen, of Manchester, were carefully looking over the many varieties filling out on of those very surveys to judge the hundreds of plants before them while enjoying their first visit to the open house.

“We're trying to get a sense of what's good,” Bob.

He said he heard from a staff member of the open house that despite all the work and care put into each of the plants, 90 percent of what's sold boast the traditional red color.

Karen, who liked the more unusual patterns and colors said she liked that some of the plants looked like they could be decorations beyond Christmas.

As the event is also intended to encourage research and education on the plants, signs dispelling some common myths were also placed in the greenhouses. The most notable fact? The plants are not poisonous to humans or even pets contrary to popular thought.

The event, which is free to the public, will continue Friday and Saturday, Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.